With the MLB Draft this Sunday quickly approaching, I’ll be taking a look at some of the top prospects for each NL Central team to consider with their first round picks. Every team in the division has a pick in the first round and the Milwaukee Brewers, Cincinnati Reds, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Chicago Cubs all have extra picks due to the competitive balance rounds or compensation picks. Focusing in on the first round, kicking off the draft is the Pirates who hold the first overall pick.

For the Pirates, the two obvious options are Dylan Crews and Paul Skenes. Crews is coming off a season where he hit 0.426 with 18 home runs and an OPS of 1.280 while winning the Golden Spikes Award. If not Crews, the Pirates will likely take Paul Skenes who is one of, if not the best pitching prospect since Stephen Strasburg. Skenes finished his season at Louisiana State with a 1.69 earned run average and 209 strikeouts over 122.2 innings pitched. The only reason for the Pirates to choose someone else would be if they try to save money for some of their other draft picks.

The next draft pick from the NL Central is the Reds at seven. It’s assumed that Crews, Skenes, and Wyatt Langford will be the first three picks off the board, which would leave the Reds hoping that Max Clark or Walker Jenkins slips to them. This seems unlikely and gives the Reds a lot of different ways to go. If they prefer college-level players, they could go with the best catching prospect in the draft in Kyle Teel who received the Buster Posey Catcher of the Year Award or an elite arm in Rhett Lowder or Chase Dollander. Dollander seems to have a little better stuff but Lowder significantly outperformed him this past season while leading Wake Forest to the College World Series.

At 13, who the Cubs will select largely depends on how the earlier part of the draft shakes out. In the past couple of years, they have seemed to lean towards college players, especially pitchers. If that remains the case, they could look at Hurston Waldrep from Florida, or Lowder if he falls out of the top 10 picks. If they choose to go in another direction, it seems like it could be to draft a shortstop whether that is high school phenom Arjun Nimalla who is committed to Florida State or one of the talented college shortstops such as Jacob Wilson or Jacob Gonzalez. 

The Brewers pick at 18 in this year’s draft where they have favored college batters over the past couple of drafts. They are another NL Central team that could give Waldrep a look as well. If they decide to go with another college batter some players to keep an eye on are Yohandy Morales, Brayden Taylor, and Tommy Troy who are ranked right around their draft spot. All three had very impressive years for Miami, TCU, and Stanford.

The last team to draft in the first round from the NL Central is this year’s worst team, The St. Louis Cardinals who pick 21st. It is more about who is available because there are so many surprises. Similarly to the Brewers, the Cardinals will definitely take a look at Yohandy Morales if he is available as well as Brock Wilken and Enrique Bradfield Jr. At this point in the draft, there is also a ton of high school talent available if the Cardinals choose to go that route.